Sense of humor.

Thursday night. It’s under-rated — a sense of humor. We hear it’s a good idea to have one. We know it’s easier to face challenges with one. We love comedians — and of course, they have one. How do we face life without one?

While rifling through my dad’s office, full of important papers and memories, there were a couple of boxes of pictures that had been saved through the years. Inside one of the boxes there were a couple of framed drawings of my parents. One depicted a pear-shaped, bald head with a few hairs sticking straight up, a face with beady eyes and a friendly smile. The other one showed a flat-topped hat on the head of a woman’s smiling face with a witch-like nose, shapely lips, pointed chin…. obviously, neither of these drawings were what you might call, “flattering.” They were not intended to be. My parents never looked at these pics as anything other than reminders of a fun event — at some point in time, they posed and had these exaggerated likenesses drawn of them, and they apparently thought enough of them to get them framed and then hang them in our house. For years, these silly cartoons of my parents hung in our family’s rogues gallery.

In our current looks-obsessed culture, it’s refreshing to remember that my parents didn’t take themselves too seriously. They allowed caricatures in their unflattering glory to hang on the wall for all to see: good memories of fun times — what a blessing.

The recent elections have brought to mind how seriously we all take ourselves. It seems there is very little generosity of spirit. I think a sense of humor regarding oneself leads us to be less harsh in judgment towards others. Perhaps if we possess the ability to laugh at ourselves, then we can learn to accept others in their less-than-perfect state, as well.

Romans 12:8If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.